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The Moroccan Radical Left: Post-Cold War Trajectories and Fluctuating Political Relevance (1990s -2022)
Abstract
This paper examines the post-Cold War trajectories of the Moroccan radical left. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary materials, this paper examines the evolution of the Moroccan radical left from the end of the Cold War until 2022, analyzing its transformations in a national context shaped by significant global change processes. The paper traces the organizational and ideological shifts that the Moroccan radical left, in its two main forms (the Marxist-Leninists of Annahj Addimoqrati and the parties of the "democratic left"), has undergone since its reemergence as a significant organized actor in the political field. Using primary and secondary sources, the paper then analyses the links between their internal ideological changes, their strategic and tactical choices, and the dynamics of the wider political field (co-optation of traditional oppositions, relations with Islamists, role in the 2011 protests). The paper then highlights the "relevance" (Sartori, 1976) of the Moroccan radical left, arguing against the transposition of purely electoral understandings of that concept to electoral authoritarian settings, and proposes an alternative model. It then uses that model to illustrate the fluctuating relevance of the principal organized actors within the Moroccan radical left. Empirically, this study contributes to filling the gap in current knowledge of the Moroccan radical left, particularly the political dynamics that have shaped its evolution since the end of the Cold War. Theoretically, it illustrates the importance of clearly defined and contextually adapted conceptions of relevance when looking at radical political actors positioned at the edges of the political field.
Discipline
Political Science
Sociology
Geographic Area
Morocco
Sub Area
None